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Sensory-motor enhancement in a virtual therapeutic environment

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Abstract

The sensory-motor skills of persons with neuromuscular disabilities have been shown to be enhanced by intensive and repetitive therapeutic interventions. This paper describes a form of low immersion virtual reality and a prototype, open source system that allow a user with significant physical disability to actively interact with computer-generated objects whose behaviors promote a game-like interaction. Unlike fully immersive and haptic virtual reality, this approach frees the user from head-mounted displays and gloves. It extracts the user’s real-time silhouette from the output of a remote video camera and uses that two-dimensional outline to interact with graphical objects on screen. In contrast to video games that have been modified with specialized interfaces, this virtual interaction system promotes the repetitive use of goal directed movements of the arms and body, which are essential to promote cortical reorganization, as well as discourage unwanted changes in muscle tissue that result in contracture. A prototype system demonstrates the potential of low immersion technology to motivate users and encourage participation in therapy. It also offers the potential of accommodating the sensory-motor skills of individuals with very significant impairment. The behaviors of the computer-generated graphics can be altered to allow use by those with very limited range of motion and/or motor control. These behaviors can be adjusted to provide a continuing challenge as the user’s skills improve. This prototype is described in terms of functional capabilities that include a silhouette extraction from a video image, and generation of graphical objects that interact with the silhouette. The work is extended with a discussion of a more sophisticated region of interest detection algorithm that can select specific parts of the body.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been supported by US National Science Foundation grant HRD 9800175 with additional support from the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Augmentative Communication (University of Delaware) and by the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Technology for Children with Orthopedic Disabilities (New Jersey Institute of Technology) both from the US National Institute on Disability.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights, Newark, NJ, 07102-1982, USA

    Richard A. Foulds, David M. Saxe & Sergei Adamovich

  2. Romeo Tango Software, P.O. Box 1501, Bear, DE, 19701-1501, USA

    Arthur W. Joyce III

Authors
  1. Richard A. Foulds
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  2. David M. Saxe
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  3. Arthur W. Joyce III
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  4. Sergei Adamovich
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Correspondence to Richard A. Foulds.

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Foulds, R.A., Saxe, D.M., Joyce, A.W. et al. Sensory-motor enhancement in a virtual therapeutic environment. Virtual Reality 12, 87–97 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-007-0067-5

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